Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than a dozen novels, including Sunset and Sawdust, Rumble Tumble and The Bottoms.

He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, the Edgar Award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, and seven Bram Stoker Awards. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Maxim Jakubowski is a British writer and editor who has been called the king of the erotic thriller and has edited five Mammoth volumes of erotica. He lives in northwest London.

Kim Newman is a well known and respected author and movie critic. He writes regularly for Empire Magazine and contributes to The Guardian, The Times, Time Out and others. He makes frequent appearances on radio and TV. He has won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy and British Science Fiction Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and James Herbert Awards.

Martin Edwards was born in Knutsford, Cheshire. He read law at Balliol College, Oxford and trained as a solicitor. He is the author of the legal mysteries featuring Harry Devlin adnd writes the popular crime series set in the Lake District. He is also a critic and has edited various short story collections and writes The Martin Edward's Column on BookNoir.

Although he was born in Cumbria, Mike Craven grew up in the North East before running away to join the army when he turned sixteen. After training as an armourer for two and a half years, he spent the next ten travelling the world having fun. In 1995 he left the army and completed a degree in social work, with specialisms in criminology, psychology and substance misuse.

In 1999 he joined Cumbria Probation Service as a probation officer, working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later, he took the plunge and accepted redundancy to concentrate on writing. He now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals.

Between leaving the army and securing his first publishing deal, Mike found time to keep a pet crocodile, breed snakes, survive cancer and get married. He lives in Carlisle with his wife, Joanne, and his springer spaniel, Bracken.

Mason Cross was born in Glasgow in 1979. He studied English at the University of Stirling and currently works in the voluntary sector.

He has written a number of short stories, including 'A Living', which was shortlisted for the Quick Reads 'Get Britain Reading' Award. He lives in Glasgow with his wife and three children.

William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. His debut novel, Gravesend, was published as #1,000 in the Rivages/Noir collection in France, shortlisted for the Prix Polar SNCF, nominated for the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere and shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger.

Boyle is also the author of the Hammett Prize-nominated The Lonely Witness (No Exit Press), a book of short stories, Death Don't Have No Mercy and another novel, Tout est Brise, released in France by Gallmeister.

A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself was published to enormous praise, it was an Amazon Best Book in 2019. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

NICK MAMATAS is the author of several novels, including The Last Weekend and I Am Providence.

His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Tor.com, and was recently collected in The People's Republic of Everything.